3 year old behaviour

[Youweremybrotheranakin]

My Dd is 3 in 2 weeks. We have a 4 month old baby, she started preschool at Easter and she’s just dropped her nap so there’s ALOT going on for her. I really have compassion for that.

However her behaviour is so difficult at the moment, particularly in the afternoons. She is so angry, lashes out at us and her little sister, has enormous meltdowns, shouts, hits, kicks, generally does the opposite of anything I ask, takes forever to be cooperative about nearly every essential everyday task (eg nappy changes, dressing),

I feel like every element of my day is spent negotiating, giving warnings, anticipating the next meltdown, so much mental gymnastics 😖

She is really smart and her language skills are excellent, so it’s not that she can’t communicate what she wants.

she is just so strong willed. And angry.

My family are making me feel as if her behaviour is out of control and it’s getting me down.

I’ve tried gentle parenting, firm approach, reward charts, I don’t really know what else to do.

Any suggestions x

I felt like this when my DD was 3 and I had a small baby; I read the book how to talk so little kids will listen and it really helped both for strategies and managing my expectations about her behaviour.
I wonder if even though she’s dropped her nap she’s getting quite tired in the afternoon; I implemented quiet time after lunch where DD could choose between us reading books or watching tv (predictably often she chose tv) and it seemed to help to have a bit of a rest and once implemented it was my chance to have a cup of tea and sit down for a little while and regain my energy for the afternoon.

Do you think maybe it's a case of she wants to do things herself. So perhaps if you haven't already start potty training if the nappies are a battle. When it comes to clothes pyjamas give her some options to choose from etc. X